How Things Should Be
by blacklikemysoul
Summary: Ziva is back from Israel and life in America is interesting, as always. AU, aka "How NCIS would work if I were in charge". Pretty quickly turns into Zabby.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Not mine. I know. Cuz things would be a lot different if they were. :D**

Ziva sighed and tugged her luggage down from the overhead compartment. This was definitely the worst part of the flight; the 13 hour flight was nothing compared to the 30-45 minutes it would take her to get off the plane, go through customs, pick up her checked luggage, and _finally_ leave the airport. But as exhausted as she was, she was also extraordinarily excited to be back home, back in D.C. where her true family lived and where she was valued for more than her skill as an assassin.

Following an interminable wait, Ziva stepped out into the hot afternoon air and was immediately assaulted by an excited Goth. As Abby squeezed the air out of her, Ziva grinned. She was so happy to be back, and the forensic scientist's enthusiasm was contagious; with Abby to amuse her until that evening, Ziva thought she might be able to stay awake until a decent hour and avoid jet lag altogether.

Abby pushed the luggage cart to her car-- ahem, hearse-- babbling excitedly the whole way about everything Ziva had missed in the months she had been back with Mossad. Unable to get a word in edgewise, Ziva just smiled and contented herself with listening to her friends disjointed summary.


	2. Chapter 2

It was finally 2200 hours and Ziva was barely managing to remain upright in the shower. Only her strong distaste for the griminess of travel had convinced her to stay awake long enough to get clean, and she looked forward to collapsing onto the bed in Abby's guest room. She stepped out of the shower, immediately missing the warm embrace of the steaming water, and quickly wrapped herself in the black towel with a pink skull insignia that Abby had hung up in the bathroom. Smiling to herself, she opened the door and walked to her bedroom to find Abby sitting on her bed with a bag at her side.

"Abby, wha---" Ziva began as Abby pulled a brush from the bag and patted a spot on the bed next to her.

"Thought you might be too tired to brush your own hair."

"Mmmm," Ziva responded, allowing the towel to fall around her ankles as she stood in front of her suitcase and pulled out underwear and pajamas.

She turned around, ready to receive Abby's ministrations, and was amused by the shock on the older woman's face. Too tired to think of a witty response, Ziva just quirked her eyebrow at Abby and sat down in the indicated spot, back turned to Abby.

As she began brushing her hair, occasionally pausing to add some sweet smelling cream that Ziva assumed would make her hair easier to brush, Abby burst out, "I wasn't staring you know. Well, I mean I was but it's just... Well, I thought you'd be a little more modest than that. Not that there's anything wrong with your level of modesty! I just mean, you know, that I didn't think you'd be comfortable with me seeing you naked. But I guess we're both women. I've got everything you've got and so on. Although, I must say that there is a big difference between us. You're way more exotic. I mean, tan and stuff. And we have different builds. And you don't have any tattoos. That I could see. I mean, that I noticed. Not that I looked everywhere. I mean, I guess you could have a small one that I didn't notice...."

Ziva allowed Abby to continue her deluge of words without interruption, enjoying the familiar rise and fall of her voice, her characteristic enthusiasm, and the gentle strokes of the brush in her hair. After a few minutes, she no longer heard Abby's words, only a soft pattering of sounds, and Ziva knew that she was almost asleep.

Suddenly, she awoke to find a blanket tucked around her and a pillow under her head. Ziva crawled up to the head of the bed, snuggled down into the sheets, and drifted back into a deep, dreamless slumber.


	3. Chapter 3

_A week later_

Ziva rolled over and looked at the clock on her nightstand: 4:59a.m. She smiled slightly to herself, turned off the alarm, and sat up only to be overwhelmed nausea.

_And I thought I had managed to avoid all of the side-effects of flying, _she sighed as she vomited into the toilet. _Oh well, this makes morning super fun..._

Ziva yanked on her jogging clothes in frustration, ripping some hair out as she put up her hair a little too aggressively.

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Usually, Ziva felt wonderful after a run. Today, she just felt drained and, delightfully enough, still nauseated. However, she was glad that she had gone if for no other reason than she was excited about seeing Abby's face when she woke up to a fresh CafPow! and chocolate muffin.

She opened the door and crept into Abby's room silently, CafPow! in hand. She sat the drink down on Abby's nightstand, opened the curtain, and twirled around to softly wake the goth. However, Ziva was temporarily stunned by the unexpected beauty of the porcelain goddess in the coffin.

After a moment of drinking in Abby's ethereal beauty and a deep sigh, Ziva refocused on her mission.

"Boker tov, Abby."

Time's it?" Abby mumbled in reply.

"It is 6:30. I just got back from my run and am about to take a shower. There is a CafPow right next to you and a muffin on the table in the kitchen."

Ziva watched with amusement as Abby transformed from a Sleeping Beauty to the effervescent, happy person she was used to with just a few slugs of the disgustingly sweet, red drink beside her.

Feeling assured that Abby would not fall back asleep, Ziva slipped out of the room and into the shower, occasionally hearing Abby's voice as she squealed with excitement over the muffin and cursed when she could only find one boot.

Stepping out of the shower, Ziva smiled to find herself face to face with a shocked looking Abby.

"I... uh.... I thought I could brush my teeth while you were in there. I didn't mean to...."

"Abby, it is fine. Really. You have seen at least one naked woman before, yes?"

"Yeah, but... never mind."

Abby blushed a deep red and Ziva shrugged, deciding to let Abby remain silent for the moment.

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Ziva huffed into her hair again. Today had been extraordinarily frustrating. On the best of days, she hated being stuck behind her desk doing paperwork. On top of that, she had been incapable of concentrating today, causing a higher degree of commentary than usual from Tony. Just as she decided that it _would_ be considered justifiable homicide, Gibbs gestured toward his "office."

After he had slammed on the emergency stop button, Ziva looked at Gibbs and sighed. "What?"

"Ziva, what is going on with you? I know that DiNozzo can get annoying, but you usually handle it much better. Right now, I'm afraid you might actually kill him with office supplies. You even snapped at McGee earlier. Not to mention the fact that you've spent more time staring into space than working. Normally, you would've had that report on my desk hours ago."

"I do not know what to say, Gibbs. I am fine. Perhaps I am just not yet adjusted to being back ho-here."

"Perhaps." Gibbs looked at her askance, as if he did not believe her but also thought that Ziva was being honest with her.

Ziva stared back, unwilling to be intimidated by him.

"Hmm," Gibbs muttered darkly as he flipped the switch and exited the elevator, Ziva a few steps behind him.


	4. Chapter 4

**Warning: We are now getting into Zabby territory. If you don't like it. Don't read it. I personally think they'd be the best couple ever, though.**

Ziva smiled, enjoying her self-imposed blindness. She had been trained, almost since birth, to never let her guard down but here, in the soothing dark of Abby's apartment, Ziva felt safe. So when Abby had turned on the movie, Ziva closed her eyes and decided to enjoy the evening in a different way. Thanks to Tony's movie obsession, she had already seen _Jesus Christ, Superstar_ and felt no need to watch the action. Instead, she was relishing the wafting incense mixing with Abby's unique gunpowder perfume and the remaining scents of the Indian food they had just finished consuming. She felt Abby squirm in an attempt to get comfortable and smiled; she loved the fact that Abby was so much like a child and yet capable of the most profound thought. And, even though she did not believe in the main character of the movie, Ziva was even enjoying the songs that blasted through the stereo.

She felt Abby lean in toward her, thinking nothing of it. But when Abby pressed her back into the arm of the couch, face inches away from hers, Ziva's eyes flew open and she leaned into the kiss that Abby had cautiously initiated. After a few minutes of vying for the upper-hand, Ziva's tongue took control. Abby slowly pulled away, hovering just above Ziva's prone body, smiled, muted the television, and began speaking in a low, seductive voice.

"I missed you while you were gone, Z. A lot."

"I missed you as well, Abby. Also a lot." Ziva smiled.

Abby pressed her forefinger against Ziva's lips, smiled, and continued. "I know you noticed me looking at you in the shower this morning. And to answer you, of course I have seen naked women before. But never any who so closely resembled a Mediterranean goddess. And never one with whom I have actually been in love."

Ziva began to protest the comparison, "Abby..."

"Ssh. Let me keep going, Z, before I lose my nerve or, more likely, my train of thought. I've had a lot of relationships and they've all been totally sincere. But I feel different about you. When you left, I thought I'd be able to get over it; I mean, I've been through a lot of break ups before and I always get over them fairly easily. But the whole time you were gone I just felt like there was this huge whole in my life. I didn't know I could feel that way. Before you left, I told Gibbs I thought I was in love with you. And the thing is, I really do think I am. In a totally different way then I ever have been before. And I know I'm horrible at commitment but if you're at all interested..."

Ziva closed her eyes for a few moments and took a deep breath, only to find the warmth of Abby's embrace fading away. When she opened her eyes, Abby had scooted to the other end of the couch and was sitting with her arms wrapped around her knees.

"Abby, I did not mean to..."

"It's ok, Z. I didn't even let you respond to the kiss. I'm much to impulsive really, I..."

Returning the gesture, Ziva gently placed her forefinger on Abby's lips to silence her.

"Abby, I gave you the chance to speak. I would appreciate it if you would now allow me to speak my soul. I have never been in a relationship that did not have some purpose. Even when I was not sleeping with someone as a means to gain information, I have always had a dual purpose in relationships. But you are different. I do not want anything from you other than your happiness. And, like you, I feel empty when we are separated. This is an entirely new feeling for me and I am not sure that I will handle it well, but... _Ani otach ohevet_, Abby."

At this, Abby sprang on Ziva again and they were soon lying entagled in Abby's coffin with their clothes strewn across the apartment. They spent the next few hours learning every inch of one another's bodies, flicking lips, tongues, eyes, and fingers in an ancient dance that was new every time it was performed. Abby was much more aggressive and domineering than Ziva would have expected, but she enjoyed the role-reversal and was satisfied to follow Abby's lead.

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Ziva's first thoughts upon waking up were of Abby. She remembered the night with exquisite detail and felt that, for the first time, she was truly happy. Reluctant to open her eyes, just in case it had all been a dream, Ziva rolled over and stroked the soft, naked flesh next to her. Thus reassured, she slowly opened her eyes and gazed at Abby's sleeping form next to her. She then began to shift, disentangling herself from the pile of limbs, in an effort to get out of bed without waking her new lover but then remembered that it was Saturday.

_I suppose it would not hurt to spend one Saturday morning in bed. After all, I did get _plenty_ of exercise last night._

Unfortunately, despite her best efforts at stealth, Ziva's movement had awoken Abby. Ziva watched with affection as her eyes flickered open and slowly perused her body. Abby grinned, kissed Ziva on the lips and declared, "This is by far the best way to wake up. You gonna stay with me or am I going to lose you to the god of exercise."

"Mmm," Ziva purred. "Perhaps, just this once, I can stay in bed with you."

They lay in silence for about 10 minutes, enjoying the feeling of naked flesh and the sensation of their synchronized, slow breathing. However, Ziva felt slightly uneasy and eventually shifted up onto her elbow to look into Abby's eyes.

"Wha'sa matter, Z?"

"Abby, there is so much I haven't told you about my life. So many secrets. And I do not wish to keep secrets from you. You are far too important for that."

"Ziva, I trust you. I know that there are certain parts of your life that you can't tell me about. I mean, Mossad isn't exactly the most information friendly agency in the world. And I don't mind. Really. Well, I am curious, but I promise it doesn't actually bother me not to know. Like, it doesn't make me angry or hurt me or anything. You're doing it to protect me."

"Yes, _Ahuvati_, that is true. But... it is more complicated than that. I have slept with many people in my job and I will probably continue to do so. It is much more agreeable than torture."

"That's fine with me, so long as I'm the only one you love."

"You always will be. But I am putting off the true problem." Here Ziva paused and closed her eyes, attempting to find the courage to tell Abby her biggest secret of all.

"Z?"

"I am sorry, Abby. If I had known... But you have to understand. He was my brother and I believed him. The monster he had become was nothing like the boy I knew and loved..."

"Ziva, what are you talking about?"

Ziva cast her eyes down and, with a very small voice, said, "Abby, Ari was my brother. My brother killed your friend. And then I killed him because I couldn't let him kill Gibbs. Because he had become a monster. And a liability to Mossad. And I hate myself for what I have done. And for what I didn't do. I should have known. I should have stopped him...."

Ziva looked up at Abby, whose eyes were wide and unblinking.

"I am so sorry, Abby. I will leave now if you want...."

"Ziva, stop. I don't hate you; I love you. I just need a moment. Stay in the apartment please. I just need a minute to think."

Abby climbed out of bed, leaving Ziva feeling exposed and broken-hearted, afraid that she had just lost her whole world.

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Ziva lay curled up on the couch, staring at a picture of Abby, her sobs now quieted to the occasional sniff.

"Ziva?" Abby said, concern etched in her voice.

Ziva looked up to see Abby standing over her, the concern on her face matching that of her voice. _I didn't even hear her come in_, Ziva thought absently. _I must really be losing it. _

"Hey..."

"I will leave, Abby. I have a suitcase packed that will get me through a few days. And I can come get the rest of my things sometime when you are not in the apartment. I'm sure Gibbs will give me a day off to get out of your way..."

"Ziva! I don't want you to leave! I told you, I just needed a little while to think. Z, you can't control who you're related to. And besides, people change. I bet he wasn't at all like that when you guys were younger. Actually, it makes me feel better cuz now I can understand why you fought so hard to prove Ari innocent after... after Kate died."

"Abby..."

"Ssh. I know, Ziva. But I meant it when I said I love you. This doesn't change a thing."

"Thank you, Abby."

This time, Ziva initiated the kiss and it was much gentler and sweeter than the first.

There was still a lot that they had to work out, but Ziva was now reassured that they could.


	5. Chapter 5

Ziva climbed out of Abby's hearse, smiling at the strange looks some of the other agents shot her before they looked away in fear.

"I bet they'd have all sorts of things to say if they didn't know you were fully capable of murdering them in their sleep."

"Shut up, Abigail," Ziva chided with a smile.

Abby pouted in return, which elicited a small giggle from Ziva and they walked the rest of the way to the elevator in the contented silence that they had easily fallen into in the few weeks that they had been lovers.. no, partners... no, girlfriends. The one thing they had not resolved was how to define their relationship. Although they were both committed to being together for the long haul, they could not find a satisfactory word to describe either their feelings or their commitment so, for now at least, they said nothing. Besides, Gibbs was the only other person who knew and he hardly required words to understand his girls.

Alone in the elevator, Abby gave Ziva a quick peck on the lips before the door slid open and a slightly flushed Ziva slipped out into an almost empty bull pen.

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"Load up. We've got a dead Marine."

Ziva smiled and jumped up from her chair, excited to be getting out of the office again. Momentarily overcome by dizziness, Ziva hurried to follow the team into the elevator.

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Everything had been fine. The signs of struggle, blood spatters, even the pallor of the body had not bothered her at all. She was, after all, quite accustomed to seeing dead, mutilated bodies. No. Her mistake had been focusing too much on the torso, which was crawling with blow fly larvae and black and wet with putrefaction. After turning six shades of green and making some lame excuse about getting more evidence bags, Ziva walked swiftly from the crime scene and vomited in a quiet, remote spot in the woods, far from the scene. When she got back to the truck, Gibbs was leaning against the back doors, staring calmly at her.

"What happened back there, Ziver?"

"Nothing. I am feeling slightly under the clouds, but it is probably a stomach virus or something. Or perhaps the pork I consumed last night. Maybe kosher laws are there for a reason after all..." Ziva trailed off and squeezed past Gibbs to get into the back of the truck and grab some more bags so that she would not return to the scene empty handed and incite DiNozzo's ceaseless curiousity.

"Uh-huh. Listen, Ziva, I want you to go to the doctor when we get back to the office. You've been acting weird since you got back from Israel. You've been snapping at everyone around you. You just threw up and Abby's pretty sure she's heard you throw up several mornings. You're going to see a doctor."

Ziva rolled her eyes and tossed a "fine" over her shoulder as she stomped back to the crime scene, happy to notice that Ducky, Palmer, and the body were already gone.

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Ziva impatiently flicked her knife open and shut, willing the door to open and bring Dr. Hansen back in. Finally, she saw the knob turn and quickly snapped the knife shut, stowing it in her waistband for easy access, should it be necessary.

"Ziva, I don't have all of the test results back yet, but so far there is no indication that you have a virus or food poisoning. I expect the rest of the tests to be back in by the end of the week, at which point I will call you and let me know what we have found. Meanwhile, I recommend that you take it easy. Try to avoid any strenuous activity at work until after we talk again."

Ziva groaned inwardly at this, knowing that she would have to tell Gibbs what the doctor had said and that it would mean desk duty for her. Not having a case was bad enough, but watching the others leave and being forced to remain at her desk was the worst punishmen imaginable.

Resignedly, she returned to the office, reported to Gibbs, and sat down at her desk for what promised to be an extremely long week.


	6. Chapter 6

As she had guessed, Gibbs immediately assigned Ziva to desk duty until she had heard back from the doctor. Unexpectedly, however, he added that she could do the paperwork in Labby as long as the two women promised to get some work done. Ziva smiled gratefully at Gibbs, scooped up her paperwork, and dashed downstairs, stopping only for Abby's obligatory CafPow! before sneaking into Abby's domain to tell her the good news.

Before Ziva could speak, Abby snatched the CafPow! from her hand encased her naked lips with soft, black ones. Ziva smiled and, after briefly indulging in Abby's skillful ministrations, stepped back.

"Gibbs has ordered..."

"I know," Abby cut her off. "I told you he would make you a desk jockey. And I kinda asked him to send you down to me this morning."

Ziva quirked her eyebrow at the phrase "desk jockey" and then smiled, delighted that Abby had figured out a way to make the week of inactivity a little less miserable for her. Abby then dragged her into her office, in which her customary blaring music was muted.

"You can totally have my office, Z. I cleaned out a drawer for you, and got your favorite pens and..."

"Thank you, _Ahuvati_," Ziva practically giggled at Abby's enthusiasm. "I am just excited to be here instead of upstairs with Tony."

Abby smiled back and then, hearing the elevator ding that signaled Gibb's arrival, sprinted out to greet him with a hug that was even more enthusiastic than usual, if that was possible.

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Despite her hatred of paperwork, Ziva was quite efficient and finished the massive backlog by the time she finished work on Wednesday. She had quite happily spent the rest of the week assisting Abby and, to both of their delight, learned forensic technique as easily and well as she learned languages.

"Ziv, I think you must have been a lab geek in a former life. You're a natural!"

Ziva smiled at the compliment, still unaccustomed to being praised for her work. Before she could answer, the phone rang and, since Abby's gloved hands were currently coated in an unknown, disgustingly sticky substance, Ziva snapped it up.

"_Miss David, this is Nurse Smythe. From Dr. Hansen's office?"_

"Yes?" Ziva replied, impatient with the hesitance in the other woman's voice.

"_Uh, Dr. Hansen has the results back from your tests? She'd like you to come in today if possible?"_

Ziva took a deep breath, telling herself that her annoyance was totally unwarranted, before responding. "What time would be convenient for Dr. Hansen, Miss Smythe?"

She looked over to see Abby leaning on the lab bench, smirking at her obvious annoyance. Sticking her tongue out in response, Ziva returned her attention to the voice on the other end of the phone line.

"_... 4:30 alright with you, Miss David?"_

"That will be fine."

After Ziva hung up the phone, Abby tilted her head inquiringly.

"The test results are back."

"And?"

"The doctor has asked that I go to her office this afternoon."

"Oh my god, Ziva! You don't think something's really wrong, do you?! Can I go with you?! I'm sure Gibb's wouldn't mind me taking the afternoon off..."

Ziva smiled and pulled Abby into a comforting embrace, waiting for her to take a breath before responding. "Abby, I am sure it is nothing and you have a lot of work to get done. There is no reason for you to come with me."

Abby began to protest but Ziva silenced her with a short kiss. "I promise I will tell you everything she says, word for word if you wish, when you get home tonight. But you will not be happy leaving work undone and I would like to have you to myself this weekend if possible."

Knowing that she would not change Ziva's mind, Abby aquiesced and Ziva stroked her cheek affectionately before releasing her and returning to the gel she was running.

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Once again, Ziva found herself sitting in Dr. Hansen's office but this time she felt slightly nervous and did not play with her knife.

When Dr. Hansen walks in, Ziva summons her original training and sinks into a disciplined calm that most find extremely unsettling. sat down at the desk across from her and smiled.

"Miss David, I think you are the healthiest patient I have ever had. All of the panels came back much better than average."

Ziva waited silently as Dr. Hansen paused, wishing that she would get to the point.

Dr. Hansen nervously began again, unnerved by Ziva's stillness and inordinately calm stare. "I have some potentially exciting news for you. As I said, you are quite healthy.... The reason you have not been feeling well is that, well, you are pregnant."

Having already calmed herself, Ziva did not react visibly to the news. However, she was quite stunned by the revelation. _I wonder what went wrong with my birth control, _she thought idly. _I know for a fact that I am not due for another IUD for another month...._

"I know you're a busy woman," Dr. Hansen continued, "so I managed to snag an appointment for you with an OB-GYN friend of mine. She'll be ready to see you, well, about now actually."

"Thank you." Ziva responded as she rose. Following Dr. Hansen's directions, she quickly found her way to Dr. Wilson's office, where she is immediately ushered into a plush room with comfortable chairs and countless pamphlets.

After exchanging greetings, Ziva preemptively cut off Dr. Wilson's spiel.

"This pregnancy was a mistake, a failure of my birth control for which I cannot account. I have given this much thought before and I would like... I do not have the time nor inclination for children and my career is not conducive to parenting. I need to set up an appointment for an abortion."

"Well, I see that you have made up your mind. Before I perform the procedure, I need to get you to fill out some paperwork and I need to perform an exam to make sure that everything is alright. We can do that part today, but I will need to set up an appointment for the actual procedure."

Ziva agreed and, after filling out a number of papers that she felt were entirely unnecessary, she followed Dr. Wilson to an examination room.

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Abby returned home to find Ziva curled up on the couch sobbing softly to herself.

"Ziva, sweetie, what's wrong?!" she asked as she pulled Ziva into an embrace.

"I... I..." Ziva sobbed, not yet calm enough to speak.

**Does this totally suck guys? I seriously need some feedback. And preferably some opinions about whether or not this is at all in character, especially for Ziva. Oh, and sorry about all the mistakes. I really should stop writing in the middle of the night, but I guess I can't control when the Muses strike...**


	7. Chapter 7

Ziva relaxed slightly into Abby's embrace. It was truly amazing how calming the normally effervescent woman could be when she needed to me. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Ziva squeezed a few more tears out of her eyes and sat up to look at Abby, needing to gauge her reaction as she spoke.

Abby looked calmly back at Ziva, her concern evident. But, despite her normal tendencies, Abby refrained from speaking, waiting for Ziva to answer her questions.

"I... Abby, I am pre... pre... pregnant," she spluttered.

Abby's eyes flashed with surprise and, was that excitement? But she kept her mouth shut, knowing Ziva had more to say.

"I have thought about it before, of course. I mean, it is not out of the realm of possibility that birth control can fail and pregnancy is an occupational hazard in my line of work. I always assumed that if it happened I would just have an abortion. But... well, the doctor had to do an exam. And she accidently hit the sound button on the sonogram machine. And I heard the heart beat and...."

Here, Ziva broke down again and Abby pulled her sobbing lover back into her lap, stroking her hair and whispering quiet assurances of her love.

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Ziva and Abby layed curled together in the coffin, enjoying the sensation of skin and skin as Abby slowly stroked Ziva's naked back.

Abby had slipped both her and Ziva's clothes off a few hours ago and led a surprisingly pliant Ziva to bed-- well, coffin-- where they had laid quietly entwined until Ziva's breathing slowed down to a steady pattern, telling Abby that she was asleep. She had slept for only half an hour but was considerably calmer upon waking.

Abby watched Ziva's eyes, trying to gauge her emotions.

"I am still pregnant," Ziva murmured, refusing to look into her eyes.

"I know."

"How..."

Abby cut her off by placing a finger over her lip and smiled when Ziva looked up at her.

"I know."

"Abby, you did not sign up for this. I mean, when we talked, where we're going, that was just me. And I obviously cannot have an abortion. I thought I would be able to but... And I cannot give up anoth-- a child. So I suppose I am having one but you. You do not have to do this."

"But what if I want to, Ziva? I wasn't kidding when I said I loved you no matter what. I mean, if I could totally control the world and make anything I wanted happen I would've waited a little longer on a baby so we could have more time with just us. But if I'm ever going to have a kid, I like the idea of it being with you. And it would've been kinda hard to figure out how... Ziv, I'm totally in if you'll let me."

"Do you really want to do this, Abby, or do you just feel that it is your duty?"

"What is this duty word of which you speak?" Abby grinned.

Ziva rolled her eyes and then smiled gently back at Abby, responding by kissing her on the lips.

"Gibbs will make me stay on desk duty from the time he finds out until the baby is born."

"Yep."

"Would you be alright with me staying in your lab for the next year?"

"I'd be fine with you staying in Labby for the rest of our lives, Z! You're a prodigy. Not to mention the fact that I have someone to talk to other than Burt and Major Mass Spec."

"Yeah, Abby. That's something else we need to talk about...."

**Okay, I know it's been forever and I'm so so so so so sorry. I'm totally out of the groove! Oh, and I got the flu, which was super fun. :D**

**Side note (and totally shameless self-promotion): You should read **_**I'd Rather Die **_**and **_**This is Not Happening**_** for an explanation of **"I cannot give up anoth-- a child." **Unless otherwise specified, I think all of my stories exist in my own little AU together. Kinda like I exist in my own little world in my head.... Ahem. Never mind.**


	8. Chapter 8

Ziva poked her muffin, eliciting a snuff of disapproval and a raised eyebrow from Abby.

"Where is he?!"

"Ziva, we're still early. Just like the last 30 times you asked. He doesn't even get her until 9:30. And I'm usually not here until 9:45 at the earliest. Calm down."

Ziva growled in response, causing Abby to giggle until Ziva shot her a death glare.

"Jeez, hormonal much?"

Abby was saved Ziva's response by the entrance of Gibbs into the the cafe where Gibbs and Abby had their weekly Sunday father-daughter brunch. Rather than responding to Abby's quip, Ziva ducked in a half-hearted attempt to hide herself behind the older woman.

Abby rose slightly from her chair as Gibbs approached and received an affectionate kiss on her cheek.

"Okay there, Ziver?" Gibbs asked, amusement and concern vying for his emotions over Ziva's obvious nervousness.

Ziva looked into his eyes, bit her lips, and sighed in response.

"Okay, let's try this again. Ziva, you went to the doctor on Friday. Abby told me on the phone last night that you had some news you needed to tell me. So tell me what's going on."

Ziva looked over at Abby, eyes widening in a silent plea to ignore Gibbs' question. Abby smiled comfortingly and squeezed Ziva's knee with the hand that had been on her leg since Gibbs arrived.

"I'm pregnant," Ziva blurted out, causing Gibbs' eyebrows to shoot up with surprise at the suddenness of her speech.

"Well, Ziver..."

"No. Let me get it all out before I lose my..."

"Nerve," Abby supplied in an undertone.

Ziva nodded and continued, "and I'm keeping the baby. Abby and I discussed it Friday night and she said that she wants to be part of this too, so I guess we're starting a family."

Ziva paused and blushed, then took a breath and continued. "All of this, Abby knows, obviously. The part she's dying for me to tell you is what she doesn't know. I wouldn't tell her because I didn't want to repeat it a thousand times and so I thought I would tell both of you at the same time. The father is, was, a Hamas agent in Jerusalem. I was undercover, acting as a really naive Jewish girl to get in and get information from him and the rest of the group."

She waved her hand at Abby's obvious confusion, but interrupted her story long enough to explain. "They like to seduce Jewish girls, take them as trophies to make their Jewish counterparts angry. Anyway, I found out what we needed to know and killed him, as per my instructions. Then I led in a team and we took out the rest of his cell. And before you ask, yes. I'm positive it's his. Timewise, he's the only one..."

Here, Ziva stopped, her gaze shifting from Gibbs to Abby and back again.

"Wow. That's intense."

Gibbs just nodded, watching the two women in front of him. Having got through her story, Ziva relaxed perceptibly and Abby kissed her gently on the cheek.

After a short moment of silence, Gibbs cleared his throat.

"I can't let you out in the field now. If anything were to happen..."

Ziva's "I know" overlapped with Abby's excited "She can totally be my assistant!" making Gibbs laugh aloud.

"We'll do that, for the most part, but Ziva will also need to continue to translate things and do some work on investigations. And, after seeing how you were on desk duty for a mere month before, I know that even helping Abby out won't be active enough for you, Ziver. So I'll let you work in the field but only with me."

He stopped Ziva's grin with his continued thought. "But before you get too excited, you can't always go. I'll let you know when you can. From now until future notice, though, gear up does not include you unless I specifically invite you."

Ziva nodded her consent, annoyed that she wouldn't be working in the field at her usual level but grateful that Gibbs wasn't wrapping her in bubble wrap and ordering her to spend her entire pregnancy in bed.

The rest of the brunch was filled primarily with Abby's excited talk and Gibbs' calm answers, all observed by an unusually quiet Ziva. After about an hour, they parted ways, Gibbs going home to work on his boat and Abby dragging Ziva to her hearse while babbling about the benefits of owning a home.


	9. Chapter 9

Abby bounced on her heels, excitedly waiting for Ziva's reply.

"Abby, the house is lovely, in a wonderful location, and shockingly affordable. But..."

Abby grinned, knowing what her lover's objection would be.

"... it is right next door to Gibbs. I am not sure he would appreciate..."

Too excited to remain silent any longer, Abby interrupted her. "He's already given his approval. In fact, he's inspected it for us and promised to help us move in. He's even drawing up plans to knock down the fence between the two yards so that we've got our own little compound! He said he wants to be as close as possible to his adopted niece or nephew."

Ziva smiled, knowing that Gibbs was indeed extremely excited about the baby, looking forward to being a father again even if the child was not technically his.

"Well," Ziva responded slowly, dragging out her answer to intentionally frustrate Abby, "if Gibbs has no objections then I guess..."

Abby squealed and ambushed Ziva with a typical Abby embrace, careful not to squish the small but growing bump that would soon be their child.

Keeping one arm around Ziva's waist, Abby turned. "Gibbs!!!"

As if he had been waiting for the cue, Gibbs' head popped out of his front door and in no time at all he was standing in front of his soon-to-be next door neighbors and two favorite women.

"I'll knock down the fence as soon as the contract's signed," he grinned. "Oh, and I have a request."

"Anything," Abby responded immediately.

"I want to set up the baby's room. Without any interference from either of you. Meaning, you're not allowed to so much as peek through a crack in the door. You have to keep out and be surprised."

"Oooh! Mystery room!" Abby squealed.

Ziva tilted her head away from Abby, ears ringing from all of her excited shouting. She smiled slightly, then nodded her assent, trying to keep from laughing aloud at Gibbs' uncharacteristic enthusiasm.

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Ziva leaned into Abby's embrace, comfortable on Gibbs house and happily sipping the tea he had just brewed for her. She half-listened to Abby's animated phone conversations with the bank and real estate agent, making all the arrangements for them to purchase the home.

Gibbs watched Ziva closely, amazed at how relaxed she was and silently thanking Abby for the positive effects she had had on the once uptight Mossad assassin.

Ziva setting down the nearly empty tea cup, Ziva closed her eyes and reflected on her contentment. She may have had a difficult life up to this point, but being here, with Abby and Gibbs and, in a larger sense, in DC with her team, she had a true family, who really cared for and supported one another. Her life was not turning out the way she had planned it at all, and for that she was supremely grateful.


	10. Chapter 10

Ziva looked around the living room, pleased with the results. Initially, she had objected to the dark colors Abby was so fond of, but the black and purple walls were surprisingly tasteful and she felt that the living room had come together quite nicely. The dark colors, extending from the walls to the black leather furniture, somehow struck a balance between the two women's personalities, displaying a blending that echoed the harmony they had found in their rapidly intensifying relationship.

"Do you really need all these books, Ziva?" Tony whined as he lugged in yet another box of Ziva's books, slowly headed toward the office, which looked more like a decent sized library than anything else, even without all of Ziva's books being moved in. Between her and Abby, she estimated that they had somewhere around 6 000 volumes, not including the forensic journals Abby subscribed to and kept filed both in her lab and at home.

Ziva just laughed at Tony and continued her tour of the home that was coming together quickly under Gibbs' expert direction.

Easing onto the couch, Ziva smiled with the memory of how they had managed to pull Tony into the slave labor. McGee, Palmer, and even Ducky had agreed without hesitation but Tony, forever avoiding manual labor, was more difficult to convince.

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_One week earlier_

Ziva, Abby, and Gibbs all stood glaring at Tony who, though squirming under their combined wrath, was refusing to give in without some promise of reward.

Realizing that he would eventually break, Tony tried to think of some compromise. After a few seconds, he realized that he knew exactly what he wanted in return for his labor.

"You guys have a secret."

Ziva rolled her eyes and Abby and Gibbs smiled; well, to be accurate, Abby grinned and Gibbs' smirked, but nonetheless...

"And I will happily trade as much manual labor as my extremely masculine physique can bear, which is a considerable amount, if you agree to tell me said secret when we are done."

Ziva and Abby held a brief, silent conversation. Ziva wasn't quite ready to have the entire team coddling her, as she knew they would once they found out she was pregnant, and she didn't want to deal with the uptick in Tony's continuous sexual innuendo that would inevitably occur if he knew that she and Abby really were sleeping together, but she also knew that she couldn't hide her pregnancy much longer and, since Abby had a habit of sneak attack passionate kisses at work, she was surprised that they hadn't already been caught by the ever lurking Tony.

"Agreed," the women said simultaneously. Then, the team began the business of planning the move, setting up a tentative schedule for cleaning, painting, and moving.

Luckily, the next week was uneventful and, with the dearth of cases, the entire team managed to leave the office early every night and by the weekend the house was move-in ready. With seven sets of hands and Gibbs' skill set, even the normally imperturbable Ziva was shocked with the rapidity with which her new home came together.

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_Back to present_

After the house was cleaned from top to bottom, Gibbs sealed off the room next to the master bedroom with crime scene tape and threatened everyone with a painful death if they dared to so much as peek into the room. Although this elicited more than a few raised eyebrows, nobody dared to defy the former Marine, so they went about their business, pretending that the room did not even exist.

Since each member of the team had accrued a large amount of vacation time, they took the following week off to move in Abby and Ziva's possessions and spend some time relaxing and bonding, which they all felt they deserved after the difficulty of Ziva's recall to Israel and the uncertainty that had followed.

Not surprisingly, Abby knew exactly how she wanted the house decorated so she and Ziva mostly supervised the move in. Much to Ziva's delight, Tony was either too busy or too scared of the combined fury of Ziva and a very protective Gibbs to mention the sleeping arrangements and so did not comment on the fact that she and Abby were buying a house together, much less on the strange addition of a queen sized bed to accompany Abby's coffin in the master bedroom.

"After all," Abby pointed out, "he's never seen your bedroom and for all he knows the guest room could be your room. And I sleep in a coffin, so how weird can it be that I also want a bed?"

Once the books were moved in, Ziva spent the majority of her time in the office, organizing the books on the wall-to-wall shelves Gibbs had set up for them. Occasionally, she would call in one of the guys to move a box to the bedroom, which also contained a large bookshelf, and fairly quickly she had all of the books arranged to perfection.

By Thursday night, with the exception of Gibbs' mystery room, the house was finished.

Tony flopped down on an oversized chair, exhausted by the unaccustomed exertion of the past two weeks. The rest of the team arranged themselves comfortably around the living room, Gibbs and Abby flanking a very nervous (although visibly composed) Ziva on the couch.

"All right, guys. I kept up my end of the bargain. Now, spill." Tony demanded, looking expectantly at Ziva.


	11. Chapter 11

"All right, guys. I kept up my end of the bargain. Now, spill." Tony demanded, looking expectantly at Ziva.

Abby grinned, waiting for Ziva's response and, more importantly, everyone's reactions to said response. After a brief pause filled with Ziva's uneasy sigh and Tony's inquisitive-five-year-old-boy squirming, Ziva told the team the story she had so recently told Gibbs and Abby.

Everyone was incredibly excited about the baby, voices clamoring promises for tree-houses built, games of football and chess played, free tutoring and babysitting provided, and myriad other offers as the popped into the men's heads.

Ziva attempted to calm down the unruly group, raising her hands in a gesture that resembled defeat and loudly thanking them for being her family. She assured them that she was thrilled that they were so eager to take an active role in the child's life; however, it took a Gibbs stare to silence the group, at which point Abby dramatically took Ziva's hand in hers and announced that they were in a serious, house-buying, family-raising, long-term relationship.

Tony broke into a wide grin and opened his mouth, presumably to make some lewd comment about lesbians, but before he had the opportunity to make a sound, Gibbs head-slapped him, causing him to snap his mouth shut. Ducky, McGee, and Palmer took the more mature, and safer route, and congratulated the two women.

Just as they were finishing this round of excited exclamations, the doorbell rang, indicating that it was time for the other half of the promised "payment" for helping Abby and Ziva move in and set up house: pizza! Soon, pizza boxes were scattered about the living room as the ravenous group grabbed slice after slice. Silence largely reigned during the informal meal, as everyone was much more interested in eating than talking, and was interrupted only by the occasional "sorry" as hands bumped en route to the same piece of pizza and Ziva's promise of a nicer meal at a later date.

When everyone had eaten their fill, they all settled back into more comfortable positions, intent on spending some quality time together talking, reminiscing, and getting to know one another even better. Ziva settled surprisingly comfortably into Abby's embrace, sitting half in her lap with her head resting on Abby's shoulder. Halfway through one of Ducky's reminiscences of his glory days at Eaton, Gibbs realized she was asleep and covered her with a blanket, thinking as he did so of all the times he had done so for Kelly.

As soon as Ducky finished his story, Tony burst out, "She's not snoring!"

Abby, Gibbs, and Ducky exchanged glances and chuckled.

"What?" Tony responded, annoyed at being left out.

"She doesn't snore, Tony," Abby replied, stifling a giggle.

"But..."

"On that mission, and at other times, she has intentionally snored to keep herself partially awake in case of danger," Gibbs explained.

"Plus," Abby cut in, " she might also have enjoyed annoying you!"

"Very mature."

"Like you are?" McGee responded, setting off a round of bickering that resulted in Tony, McGee, and Palmer being head-slapped and Abby being told that she was only spared because Gibbs didn't want to disturb Ziva. This settled them down and the conversation soon returned to shared memories, funny stories, and random factoids (courtesy of Ducky and Abby), who fed off of one another until Gibbs cleared his throat.

Around midnight, Ducky looked at his watch and, startled by the late hour, excused himself. The rest of the team soon followed his example, with Gibbs locking up behind himself only after being assured by Abby that she could get Ziva to bed on her own.

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"Cherie," Abby prompted softly, gently tucking a loose curl behind Ziva's ear.

"Mmmm..." Ziva murmured/whined, eyes still tightly shut and completely unwilling to emerge from her happy bubble of sleep.

"It's time to move to the bed, cher. You won't be comfortable sleeping sitting up all night."

Ziva sighed, pouting slightly, and opened a single eye.

With a gentle kiss to Ziva's forehead, Abby disentangled herself from their embrace, scooted out from beneath her lover, and pulled Ziva, still stubbornly (and adorably, Abby thought) half-asleep, into a standing position. Abby carefully guided Ziva to their bed and Ziva sat, obediently lifting her arms and shifting as required while Abby stripped her and then tucked her under the covers. Abby then quickly undressed herself and slipped under the sheets into Ziva's warm embrace. Ziva gave Abby a lazy kiss and soon the two were fast asleep, limbs entangled in a lazy embrace.


	12. Chapter 12

Abby heard a burst of Hebrew expletives spewing out of her office and grinned. Now in her third trimester, Ziva was all but banished to Labby. Because Gibbs would not permit her to go out in the field, her normally fierce temperament was worsened by her imprisonment in the office; with the further addition of her fluctuating hormones, everyone but Team Gibbs was terrified of her and even Tony and McGee were giving her a wider latitude than normal. So now she was down in forensics, where her outbursts were met with amusement rather than abject terror. After the stream of words slowed to a quiet, albeit still fierce, trickle, Abby walked back to Ziva's desk, squeezed her shoulders comfortingly, and gave her a gentle kiss on the top of her head.

"Everything alright, cher?" Abby inquired sympathetically, knowing that she would be pissed and bored too if she couldn't do her job.

"I hate translation work, Abs! My brain does not work this way. If I am speaking Arabic, I am thinking in Arabic; if I am speaking French, I am thinking in French. Even English, which is admittedly not my best language, is not constantly being translated from Hebrew in my head. That is not how it works! It is... unnatural!"

"I'm sorry, cher, really I am but you can't be in the field right now and besides, even if translations seem unnatural to you, you're damn good at them!"

Ziva rolled her eyes; she was aware of her talent with languages, due in a large part to some serious self-esteem talks courtesy of Abby after the latter had discovered how harsh Eli David was toward his daughter. Despite Abby's attempt to placate her, however, she still hated any work that was still ridiculously passive; she wanted to do something active; she wanted to fight! The fact that she was generally brought only the most challenging documents, the ones that NCIS (and sometimes other agencies) linguists had been unable to translate, made the job only slightly more bearable.

"Wanna take a lunch break?" Abby asked, a welcome interruption to Ziva's choleric thoughts.

Ziva grinned, standing and locking away her current project with one smooth motion, clearly acquiescing to Abby's proposition.

With a wide grin, Abby asked "Where shall we go, my love?"

"Hmm..." Ziva pretended to ponder the question. "I just cannot decide. I suppose we could go to Reuben's..."

Ziva's main craving during this pregnancy had been the corned beef sandwiches from the deli right outside the gates of the navy yard. Luckily for Abby, there was a surprisingly large array of sandwiches, soups, and salads that were delicious.

Abby and Ziva took a long lunch, walking leisurely to and from the deli and eating at a slow, completely un-American pace while at the deli.

Ziva was still slightly skittish about public displays of affection, not used to being demonstrative with her feelings. However, much to Abby's delight, she interlinked their fingers as they walked out of the lab and, with the exception of when they were eating their sandwiches, which required two hands, kept their fingers intertwined until they were back in the lab.

"Thank you, Ahuvati."

"What are you talking about? You paid for lunch _and _the ice cream cones," Abby replied, licking the remnants off of her fingers.

Ziva laughed and pulled Abby toward her. "For knowing when I needed a break and providing it," she responded in an undertone before pressing her lips onto Abby's. Locked in their increasingly passionate kiss, both Ziva's ninja senses and Abby's psychic connection failed so that they were startled into jumping apart when Gibbs, who seemed to magically have entered the room, cleared his throat loudly behind them.

"I don't believe this is the type of productivity we discussed when I agreed to let Ziva work down here."

Both Ziva and Abby blushed, slightly embarrassed at the scenario: it was a lot like two teenagers being caught making out by a parent.

"Ziva, I need to speak with you. Privately. In my office. And no, Abby, I am not planning on yelling at her," Gibbs said, cutting off Abby, who had opened her mouth to object.

Abby spun around to her bank of equipment, determined to resume the work she had abandoned in favor of work. Meanwhile Ziva trailed Gibbs into his "office," nervously unsure of what to expect from this meeting.

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_What did I do? I do not think that he would yell at me for what just happened. And I snapped at Tony yesterday, but that was provoked and he got in trouble for that. And I think Gibbs would have said something to me then. I have not looked into the nursery, despite the fact that it is driving me INSANE. Well, I did head slap McGee earlier today and do not think it was entirely called for but..._

After activating the emergency stop button, Gibbs faced Ziva with a grin that completely halted her train of thought with its unexpectedness.

"I spoke to your father just a few moments ago, Ziva."

"Then I am even more confused by your apparent good mood."

"The asset we were hiding with our Israeli-- er-- friends can now be safely returned," Gibbs said, pausing slightly before saying the word friends.

Ziva's eyes lit up at this revelation like the eyes of a child who has just seen his or her first glimpse of the Christmas presents under the tree. "So all of the barriers have been removed? All of the issues have been resolved?"

Gibbs nodded happily in response, allowing Ziva's stream of questions to flow uninterrupted.

"How? No! Never mind. When?!"

"Saturday. Could you handle the arrangements for a reception? The team will need special debriefing."

"Certainly."

"One more thing, Ziver," Gibbs said as he flipped the switch to reanimate the elevator.

"I expect you to continue to keep this a secret until the asset is revealed."

Ziva pouted, hating to keep a secret, especially one so monumental, from Abby. However, when Gibbs quirked his eyebrow in the familiar pre-Gibbs-stare manner, Ziva nodded her understanding and slipped out of the elevator to return to her translation work.

**Want to know what or who our asset is? Stay tuned!**

**Oh, and apologies for the slow updates. Life is craaaazy right now. :D**


	13. Chapter 13

Ziva woke up at 8 am, an hour to which she was becoming accustomed.

_I wonder why pregnancy makes one so tired? If I had been told a year ago that I would get in the habit of sleeping so late... What is the rest of the phrase? Oh well. I should ask Abby about this._

Ziva climbed out of bed, careful to not wake her sleeping lover. Having successfully gotten out of bed without so much as a sigh from Abby, she spent a few moments gazing at her mate.

_She is so beautiful when she sleeps. Well, all the time really but she is rarely still enough for this kind of scrutiny. _Ziva smiled fondly. _The contrast of her raven hair and snow white skin, her gentle curves; I am the luckiest woman on earth._

Abby rolled over, a peaceful moue on her sleeping face.

Ziva's smile turned bittersweet. Despite the obvious differences, Abby often reminded Ziva of Thalia and, at this moment, the figure in the bed seemed to flicker between Thalia and Abby.

_How do they manage to see the evil in the world and yet remain innocent and trusting? Why do they, who are so kind, almost perfect, love someone like me?_

Abby's eyes flickered open and she smiled sleepily.

"Whatcha thinking'?" Abby mumbled with a voice filled with sleep.

"How amazing you are, Ahuvati. And how incomprehensible it is that you love me without condition."

Abby's smile deepened as her mind took in an answer that was far too serious for a pre-CafPow conversation.

"It would be really hard not to love you, Z. In fact, if you will recall, I tried and failed to hate you."

Ziva laughed and sat back down on the bed.

"I need to get to work on setting up for tonight."

"Nah. You're picking up the food, the house is spotless thanks to your nesting urges, and we can have everything else up in less than an hour... unless you've got some secret prep to do."

Ziva chuckled and captured Abby's lower lip with her mouth. " I suppose you are correct. So what do you suggest we do with our spare time?"

Abby grinned wickedly and with unexpected energy (considering the lack of caffeine) straddled Ziva, careful to balance herself so that she would not put too much pressure on Ziva's ever expanding abdomen.

Ziva smiled and leaned forward into Abby's kiss. Although Ziva was usually more dominant than her sexual partners, Abby had quickly asserted herself as the more dominant of the two in the bed (and coffin), and Ziva enjoyed the role reversal.

Leaning back, she closed her eyes as Abby traced her lips, jawline, and neck, alternating between quick licks, fleetingly hard nips, and a light scraping of her teeth. She shivered as Abby gently bit her ear lobe before moving back down to clamp her lips around Ziva's left nipple, which she bit then soothed with her tongue. Meanwhile, Abby's other hand rolled and caressed Ziva's other breast, making the already erect nipple tingle and sending bolts of electricity down Ziva's spine.

After applying the same treatment to each breast, Abby moved her exploring tongue down, tracing a burning trail down from Ziva's xyphoid process to her navel. Flicking her tongue in and out of the depression a few times, eliciting the first moan from Ziva. She grinned triumphantly; she and Ziva competed to see how long it would take Abby to draw a response from Ziva. Apparently today Ziva had little self-control.

Abby slipped back up to receive a passionate kiss from Ziva, whose eyes were already glazed over with desire.

"What did you say, cher?"

"Mmm?" Ziva hummed in response.

"Words, sweetie?"

"Please..."

"Please what?"

Ziva's eyes opened and flashed in annoyance. Abby had reduced her mind to mush and now expected her to form coherent requests? In English?

Abby smiled innocently in return, waiting for Ziva's response.

"Please... I need you." Ziva finally ground out from between clenched teeth, already feeling the muscles in her vagina tense in anticipation.

Abby slid down carefully, continuing to avoid putting weight on her their child, and slipped between Ziva's thighs. Abby took a moment to breathe in her lover's essence, a concentration of her unique scent that was comprised of sandalwood, pomegranate, and some exotic scent that Abby was fairly certain was uniquely Ziva.

Ziva whimpered, breaking Abby's reverie. In response, Abby plunged three fingers into Ziva's already wet core, causing Ziva to cry out and attempt to raise her hips. With her free hand, Abby held Ziva's pelvis down while her tongue and teeth teased Ziva's swollen clitoris and her other hand pumped a steady rhythm that matched Ziva's own.

When Ziva climaxed, Abby slid back up and captured Ziva's lips in her own, stifling her scream of pleasure and allowing Ziva to taste herself.

Abby had quickly discovered that bringing Ziva to her climax and watching her eyes as she came back down would lead to an intense orgasm of her own without any physical stimulation.

Thus, when Ziva came back to herself, she embraced her quivering, moaning lover and watched Abby ride out her own wave of pleasure. When Abby returned to earth, the two kissed languorously and then molded their bodies together for warmth as their sweat evaporated.

Abby could feel Ziva's breathing slow and even out. She stroked her hair, removing the tangled curls from Ziva's sweaty brow and closed her eyes, happy that Ziva would be getting a few more hours of sleep.

Comfortably ensconced in Ziva's embrace, Abby succumbed to her post-coital exhaustion.


	14. Chapter 14

_I sincerely hope that Abby is not angry with me. It is not as if I enjoy keeping secrets from her. And this one was imperative for the safety of others and, more importantly, her safety. Besides, Gibbs made me swear and she would not want me to break my word to him for any reason. At least, I do not think she would..._

Ziva swerved into the far right lane, receiving several glares, multiple rude gestures, and a cacophony of horn blares. Ziva blithely ignored the clamor, used to such reactions to her driving, and skillfully parallel parked her Mini Cooper. A few minutes later, Ziva emerged from the florists carrying 13 black roses in an intricate Gothic vase.

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Arriving back at their house, Ziva placed the flowers on the mantel above the fireplace that had sold her on the house and walked into the kitchen to begin artfully laying out the take-out that she would be serving.

When she heard a squeal of delight from the living room, she carefully sat down the knife she was using to carve the Peking duck and turned around to receive Abby's ever-enthusiastic embrace.

After kissing Ziva on both cheeks, Abby held her at arms length and looked at her suspiciously.

"What are the flowers for?" Abby asked suspiciously.

"I love you. And..."

"Yes?"

"Well, I hope you do not become angry with me. I do not like keeping secrets from you and this is a big one."

"Oh," responded Abby flatly.

"But," Ziva cut in, "I kept it for good reason. You were safer not knowing and reducing the number of people who are aware of a confidential operation reduces the risk of it being leaked exponentially..."

"You don't trust me to keep a secret?!"

"Of course I do, Ahuvati. But there was a chance, until quite recently, that those who knew any details were in danger of being tortured for their knowledge. There is no way I put you in danger like that. And, Ahuvati, Gibbs made me swear not to tell anyone, even you."

"Okay," Abby replied with a shrug.

"Really? I wanted to tell you but..."

Abby smiled brilliantly and drew Ziva back into her arms. "I would never, ever want you to break a promise you made to Gibbs, cher," she said into Ziva's hair. "And yeah, I'm a little annoyed, but not at you."

Ziva leaned back slightly to give Abby an inquisitive look.

"I'm 98% annoyed because someone knows a secret that I don't know and I hate not knowing everything. You know how nosy I am."

Ziva smiled back at Abby, rolling her eyes at the self-deprecation.

"And the other 2% is with Gibbs. You, I'm perfectly fine with."

Abby kissed a very relieved Ziva and darted back to the living room to find the perfect place for the roses.

As Ziva turned back to her food arranging, she heard an indistinct "Oh yeah, thanks for the flowers!" from the living room, causing her to burst into laughter at Abby's slightly distracted enthusiasm.

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The guests trickled in slowly. McGee arrived first with a bottle of white wine, a Berry Mango Madness for Ziva, and a light blue baby blanket with a teddy bear head attached to the top.

"Timmy!" Abby scolded gently, "you shouldn't bring gifts every time you come over. You'll break the bank. And you've already bought so much for the baby I'm afraid it will drown in toys."

"But," interrupted Ziva after eagerly slurping down a bit of her smoothie, "the baby does approve of you bringing it Berry Mango Madness whenever you want to."

McGee grinned and Abby shook her head, taking the wine to chill while Ziva tossed the blanket into the growing pile of baby supplies in the office. (Gibbs still stubbornly refused to allow them to so much as open the door to the nursery, but would periodically transfer the pile of presents from the office to the mystery nursery.

Next came Ducky, quickly followed by an eternally nervous Jimmy Palmer. Tony waltzed in 20 minutes later, expecting to be the last to arrive and looking around expectantly for a clue as to what the mystery revelation would be.

"I beat Gibbs!"

"I sincerely doubt that you could," Ziva answered wryly.

Abby rolled her eyes at Ziva, knowing full well that she understood what Tony had said.

"But he lives next door and he's always here first."

"Relax, Tony," Ziva said. "Gibbs is intentionally the last to arrive tonight."

As she was saying this, the door opened to reveal Gibbs and... Jenny Shepphard!

"You're dead!" Abby screamed as she launched herself at Jenny for a hug.

"Actually, I'm feeling quite well," Jenny replied with a smile.

Ziva stepped forward to detach Abby, breaking the shocked stillness of the room. Soon everyone was surrounding Jenny, hugging her, voices overlapping with a plethora of questions. Finally, Gibbs whistled for silence and herded the unruly group into the dining room.

As they served themselves the Chinese feast that Jenny had requested for her welcome back meal, Jenny told her story.

"After La Grenouille's death there was an increase in conversation between arms dealers. Apparently, they were upset by my pursuit of him and believed I was responsible for his death. In response, they effectively put out a hit on me. So, with the assistance of Gibbs, certain members of the upper echelons in the American intelligence community, and Mossad, I disappeared for a while."

"You faked your own death!"

Tony spun around to face Ziva. "She said Mossad! You knew about this?!"

Ziva held up her hands defensively. "Not initially. When we came back from Miami, I sincerely thought she was dead. My reactions were legitimate. I found out when I went back to Israel. Part of my mission was to resolve some of the... issues for my father."

"So you are safe now, dear?" asked Ducky, concern written on his face.

"Yes," Ziva responded. "Mossad has... eliminated the problems and officially released Jenny from their protective custody, which they would not do unless she were truly safe."

"Like they care," Tony murmured.

"Of course they do not care," Ziva answered evenly. "But it would be embarrassing for them if they could not handle a simple protection detail."

Realizing that Ziva would not appreciate any further questions regarding Mossad or its methods, Abby redirected the conversation with a question of her own. "So what's going to happen now? Are you back at NCIS?"

"SecNav and Vance were both in on the operation from the beginning so I will resume my position as director. Vance will remain her for a month or so to catch me up on what has occurred in my absence and then he will return to his previous post."

The most pressing questions having been addressed, the conversation shifted to lighter subjects as the group caught Jenny up on all that she had missed, in terms of cases solved, social developments, and gossip. Jenny also regaled them with tales of her most recent trip to Israel.

When they had finished the meal, the group moved to the living room to enjoy their fortune cookies and the wine McGee brought (Ziva refraining from the second part of the imbibements, of course). Abby and Gibbs remained behind to clean up but finished quickly enough to be subjected to almost half of Tony's commentary on the fortunes with the traditionally "in bed" added to them. Gibbs' presence cut Tony short, to everyone's relief, and the conversation turned to movies.


	15. Chapter 15

Jenny settled back into her position of director easily, with Vance stepping down gracefully (and gratefully) and her old contacts glad to have back a director that they knew and trusted. Even Director David, who had a close relationship with Leon Vance, was glad to see Jenny back in charge of the agency.

Meanwhile, Gibbs team was still unsettled by Ziva's notable absence in the field. For her part, despite her temporary role as Abby's assistant, Ziva was crawling up the walls, impatient for the baby to be born so that she be active once again.

* * *

Ziva reclined on the couch in Abby's office, rubbing her head. Her back had been hurting all morning and, if she remembered the sensations correctly, she was fairly certain that she was in labor. She wished she could remember Aliyah's birth more clearly, but at the time it had seemed more prudent, not to mention easier, to block out those memories.

_Okay, yeah. That's definitely a contraction_, she thought as a sharp pain went shooting up her spine. Ziva sighed quietly, unwilling to alert anyone quite yet. Gibbs and Abby, she knew, would overreact and she was not planning on spending the whole day in the hospital when her water had not even broken yet. At the next contraction, Ziva began counting, keeping track of both the length of contractions and the space between them.

* * *

Abby kept looking into the back office at Ziva, concerned by her silence and complacency. Ziva was usually all over the lab, checking all of her work and bugging Abby to give her more assignments to stave off the boredom that accompanied being out of the field. This morning, however, she had largely remained on the couch in the back office, staring off into space.

Abby signed to Ziva that she was going upstairs and, after Ziva nodded acknowledgement, went out to the elevator to go talk to Gibbs.

"I'm really worried about her. Seriously. She's really quiet and still and...."

"Abs, she's probably just tired. After all, she is 38 weeks pregnant. And she hasn't exactly been taking it easy these past 9 months. I'll come check on you guys when I finish up this report."

"Gibbs!"

"30 minutes at the most, Abs. If anything changes before I get down there, you know how to get ahold of me."

Abby sighed and leaned into Gibbs' reassuring hug.

* * *

"How ya feelin', Ziver?"

Ziva took a deep breath, preparing to talk in the middle of a contraction to allay suspicions.

"I'm fine. Just tired," she replied a little more snippishly than she had intended.

"Uh-huh..." Gibbs respondedd without conviction, bending down to the level of Ziva's face and looking in her eye.

Ziva could not stop the flash of pain that flitted across her eyes as the contraction's intensity increased and Gibbs easily caught the look.

"I'm going to get the car. Abs, call her doctor and tell her that Ziva's in labor and we're on the way to the hospital."

"But the contractions aren't even..." Ziva began to protest. Her voice cut off, however, when she realized that Gibbs was already out of the room and Abby was beyond reason.

* * *

Ziva's lay in the hospital bed, stubbornly refusing to acknowledge her pain.

"Baby, it's okay to express yourself."

"I'll leave if you want me to, Ziver, but you've cried in front of me before; you know I won't think any less of you for crying right now. Acknowledging pain doesn't make you weak."

Ziva just sighed, pushing down the whimper that wanted to follow an especially strong contraction. _I got through this at 15 without betraying any emotions; I'm not about to cry now._

"Z, baby, please, just tell me how you're feeling."

"I'm fine, sweetie. Really. I've dealt with much worse pain than this."

The doctor pushed open the door, breaking up the tense moment just before Abby exploded with frustration.

"Hello, Ziva. How are you feeling?" she asked as she glanced first at Ziva's chart and then at the monitor that was tracking both the fetal heart beat and Ziva's contractions.

"Everything looks alright. Let me just go ahead and check your dilation and we'll see how we want to proceed from there."

Ziva nodded and shifted to allow the doctor better access to her pelvis, nose twitching as the cold gloves hit her skin.

"Well, Ziva, you're progressing a lot more quickly than I expected. You're just short of 10 cm right now, so I'm going to go ahead and have you taken up to delivery. This should be over fairly soon! Do you want Mr. Gibbs and Ms. Sciuto to accompany you to delivery?"

Ziva nodded, breathing through another contraction.

Soon she, Gibbs, and Abby were in the delivery, Gibbs attempting to calm Abby while the staff prepped for the imminent birth.

Approximately an hour later, Ziva lay in the recovery room, Abby snuggled up to her side, nursing their new son while Gibbs smiled deliriously and took picture after picture, wanting to document every second of his grandson's life.

The next morning, the team arrived at 10am to meet their newest family member. Abby and Ziva decided to let Gibbs introduce their son to the team so, with Tony, Ducky, McGee, Jenny, and Palmer standing around the bed, Gibbs proudly displayed the baby and said, "We would like for you all to meet Caleb Ari Sciuto-David."

The following hour consisted of excited chatter, passing around a surprisingly alert baby, and opening even more presents that everyone had bought the moment Ziva, et al. had left for the hospital the day before.

The doctor then came in and shooed everyone out of the room, ordering the new mothers to rest before their noon release. Gibbs sat in the room with them until all three of his babies were asleep and then snapped one last picture of Abby, Ziva, and Caleb curled up together on the bed before leaving to make a few last minute arrangements at the house.


End file.
